One of America’s most extraordinary natural environments, Craters of the Moon National Monument protects a vast area of lava flows and caves, cinder cones and sagebrush plains. You can explore this otherworldly landscape in Idaho’s Snake River Plain on several short hiking trails.
If you’d like to put on your paleontology hat, learn about prehistoric fossils and dinosaurs, and maybe even look for them yourself, the national parks and monuments in this post can’t be beat. From Badlands and Petrified Forest to several Fossil Beds National Monuments, they’re the absolute best National Park Service sites for fossil hunting.
One of America’s most diverse regions, the Pacific Northwest (PNW) is home to massive volcanoes, pristine temperate rain forests, high desert plains, sea stack-lined coasts and spectacular mountain ranges. In this post, I talk about the many must-visit Pacific Northwest national parks and offer a couple of suggested road trip itineraries.
There’s always been a close historical link between America’s presidents and its national parks, from the creation of Yellowstone National Park to the Antiquities Act and many national park sites related to the presidents themselves. There are over 30 presidential national parks, dedicated to presidents like Washington, Lincoln, both Roosevelts, JFK, Eisenhower and more.
From the five Utah national parks in the south to Rocky Mountain parks like Grand Teton and Yellowstone to the north, Salt Lake City is less than five hours from several epic parks. So, pack your camping and hiking gear, rent a car and go for a once-in-a-lifetime national parks road trip from Salt Lake City.
Those who aren’t interested in gambling or partying all night long will still find plenty of fun things to do around Las Vegas. It’s actually one of America’s best places to visit (and live) if you’re into hiking and rock climbing. The many state and national parks near Las Vegas make it a dream destination for lovers of the outdoors.
On a scenic road trip from Seattle to Sacramento, you can see, explore—and even climb—more than a dozen mighty Cascade Range Volcanoes in nine separate parks, from Mount Rainier and Mount St. Helens to Mount Hood, Newberry Volcano, Crater Lake and Lassen Peak.
There are half a dozen National Park Service sites within a half day’s drive from San Diego. Three of those are actual national parks. Joshua Tree, Channel Islands and Death Valley are all easily accessible on a road trip from San Diego, while there’s also an archipelago, national monument and desert preserve to be explored.
San Francisco is one of the greatest cities for a national parks road trip. The Bay Area itself is home to several beautiful and fascinating National Park Service sites, while half a dozen epic national parks are dotted across northern California, within maximum half a day’s drive from San Francisco.
In its heyday, Historic Route 66 was the most popular road to the west, both for traveling families and migrants, and it still is to some extent. “America’s Main Street”, as it’s often called, still brings road trippers to many of the best national parks in the Midwest, Southwest and California.
Many Americans who oppose the creation or expansion of national monuments nowadays may not realize that there are more than two dozen national monuments that became national parks later on. And they include some of the country’s greatest and most cherished natural attractions and holiday destinations.
From the calm waters of the Missouri River to the lush Pacific Northwest forests of the Cascade and Siskiyou ranges, national monuments in the West feature a wide variety of ecosystems, wildlife and landscapes. If you’re looking for new adventures in 2018, consider adding these beautiful public protected lands to your list.